Amazingly non-boring non-fiction. It shows us how the way we give birth over the years has been just as much related to the cultural times we live inAmazingly non-boring non-fiction. It shows us how the way we give birth over the years has been just as much related to the cultural times we live in as any actual medical advances made. The ways women have given birth and the things we've asked for to help us along the way are at times amazing and shocking. The most interesting revelation is in the fact that feminist women have at the same time demanded pain-free birth as well as the freedom to birth without drugs. Speaking once again to the incredibly personal nature of birth. If nothing else, it reminded me that the women's movement has helped give us freedom over the choices in how we want to have a birth. It shows the shift from birth being in the realm of women (midwives, friends, community women) to slowly slipping into the realm of medical doctors who knew very little about gynecology (in the early days some weren't even allowed to actually LOOK at a vagina) and were always men (women weren't allowed to become doctors for a long time. The science, the gadgets, the culture of birth are cracked wide open. And she does it all without being boring in the slightest! ...more